


Promise

by IseliaDragonwill



Series: Where There Is Light [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Canon? What Canon?, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Ardyn Spoilers, Fixing what SE broke, M/M, Night Terrors, episode ardyn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-31 01:23:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17839733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IseliaDragonwill/pseuds/IseliaDragonwill
Summary: It was only a dream. The nightmare is over.**3/28: Minor typos corrected.**





	Promise

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry, SE is trying to say Gilgamesh did what now? Excuse me while I correct this egregious oversight.
> 
> Yes, this was totally written out of spite for THAT plot point of Episode Ardyn. Dedicated to all the gilgardyn shippers. Stay strong, friendos!
> 
> Spoilers ahead, you have been warned. Comments and kudos are love. <3

When Ardyn awakes in the dead of night, it’s in a dream-induced terror.

But the dampness on his back is just sweat, the tears running unbidden down his cheeks, still clear. They taste of salt when they meet with the corners of his lips, not the bitter ichor he so fears. He almost has a mind to disentangle himself from the sheets and rush to the bathroom, to light a candle in the dark and inspect the color of his eyes, but he’s still shaking far too much to walk. 

There’s movement beside him. The warmth of an arm draped around his waist recedes as the mattress shifts with the weight of another. Ardyn is too afraid to look. What if waking was a lie? What if he’s about to meet his very end at this moment, stabbed in the back by the one who vowed to stay with him and never stray? Or worse, what if there’s no one there at all–what if he’s alone and always has been?

He’s gently eased back against skin that almost seems to be on fire, but the heat of it is somehow soothing, a balm against the imaginary wounds that litter his frame. A low voice tells him to breathe, whispering in his ear as hands travel down his shoulders, one coming to a rest over his heart to steady the panicked rise and fall of his chest. It’s grounding. Ardyn can almost forget the horrible things he had felt–the blood and betrayal alike. And as time passes, marked by soft words and even softer kisses, he finally calms, body sagging into Gilgamesh’s broad chest, exhausted.

“Another nightmare?” Gilgamesh doesn’t need to ask. This isn’t the first time this has happened and certainly won’t be the last. With their return to the throne imminent, Ardyn’s sleep has only become more fitful, marked by ever-increasing visions of futures he fears may come to pass.

For some time, Ardyn doesn’t speak, but when he does, it’s to reveal his deepest fears. “You...betrayed me.” A phantom pain flares in the shape of a large slash to his back. He knows it’s not real, but winces anyways, prompting Gilgamesh to pull him closer and press a kiss to his temple. “You stood at my brother’s side and cut me down…like I was a monster.”

Gilgamesh has no idea what to say. The nightmares are bad enough and always have been, but to hear that he had been the focus of one of them...he can’t finish the thought. Yet distraught as he is, Gilgamesh can’t begin to fathom how Ardyn must be feeling, to lose the only person he loved and trusted unconditionally and in such a brutal fashion. He’s never wanted to cause Ardyn pain or suffering and though he can’t control the imaginings of a fevered mind, he feels somehow guilty. As if what he’s given Ardyn hasn’t been enough.

Gathering him closer, Gilgamesh can’t remember Ardyn ever feeling so small–a tangle of trembling limbs with a wounded heart. He smoothes sweat-slicked hair from his forehead and leaves a kiss there instead, before resting his cheek upon the mess of red on Ardyn’s head. “I vowed to stand by you always and protect you until my very last breath. Nothing will ever change that, Ardyn.” 

“...I know.”

His voice is weak and so painfully unsure. It just the dream, Gilgamesh reassures himself. Ardyn doesn’t truly doubt him and never would, just as Gilgamesh would never turn his back on him, would never leave him to such a horrible fate, much less perpetuate it. But they’re both shaken now and the cover of night offers little comfort against hidden insecurities.

“You’re not a monster, Ardyn. Someone so kind and selfless never could be.” Fingers draw small circles on Ardyn’s back. “Is it…?”

Ardyn answers without missing a beat, confirming what they both already know to be at the root of all this. “Yes. Every day that goes by, the symptoms become harder to suppress.” Gilgamesh doesn’t know the half of it and Ardyn can’t bear to tell him. One day, he will succumb. His only hope lies at the throne, with the Crystal from which his god-given powers derived, in a last desperate plea to purge the taint from his body. Even then, he won’t stop. His people will still need him and he’ll offer himself over and over until they can be saved, for he’s the only one that can.

Gilgamesh’s voice pulls him from his thoughts. “No matter what happens, you are not your disease. You’re not a monster. You are my Ardyn and you always will be.”

An uneasy silence permeates the darkness. It isn’t until he feels Ardyn’s arms encircling his neck and a lingering kiss on his cheek that Gilgamesh knows he’s broken past the barriers erected around his heart by fear of the future, to gently cradle the broken pieces of him. There are some things he’ll never be able to protect Ardyn from, but he’d sooner be damned than stand by and do nothing at all.

So he offers comfort in a warm embrace and a place for Ardyn to rest his head, hoping against hope that for now, it will be enough to see them through another night.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Tumblr](https://iseliadragonwill.tumblr.com) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/FallenIsel)!
> 
> I'm not as active on Tumblr anymore because of the "adult content" fiasco, but I'm on [Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/iseliadragonwill) now!


End file.
